Debt service and human rights
Debt briefs
Government revenue diverted to pay debt service negatively impacts the ability of governments to meet their human rights obligations
In this paper, An analysis of the impact of debt service on human rights, we answer the question of whether public and publicly guaranteed debt should be considered a human rights issue.
We consider three scenarios: the impact on human rights of reducing government external debt service to 5%, 10%, and 14% of the government revenue in those countries where debt service is above these levels.
As debt repayment varies by year, we used the average debt service between 2022 and 2024 from the Debt Justice UK dataset (collated from World Bank and IMF sources), which includes external public and publicly guaranteed debt, IMF repurchases, and charges.
To translate the impact of debt services on human rights and governance in a country, we use Government Revenue and Development Estimations (GRADE). Additional revenue improves governance indicators, and we also summarise this impact.
Select one of the three scenarios to see the potential for human rights at country level
Scenario I - debt service reduced to 5% of government revenue
Scenario II - debt service reduced to 10% of government revenue
Scenario III - debt service reduced to 14% of government revenue
Empower Your Advocacy with GRADE
Use our realistic estimations of the impact of government revenue on fundamental rights to drive impactful change.